NEW BRIDGEHEADS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 July 1943, Page 3

NEW BRIDGEHEADS

CAPTURED BY AMERICANS IN SOLOMONS INCREASING THREAT TO MUNDA FIERCE FIGHTING IN NEW GUINEA. POWERFUL BOMBING ATTACK ON CELEBES. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, July 20. The American forces have increased their threat to Miinda aerodrome, the Japanese stronghold in New Georgia, by enlarging their beachhead at Lilio, just three miles away to the east. At least 179 Japanese were killed in attempting to stem the Allied progress, while our losses were light. Earlier a beach-head was established at Zanana Beach, six miles east of Munda. The advance to Lilio thus halves the distance to the important strategic airfield. The gain also provides an easier supply route to the American troops who are engaging the airfield’s defences. Lilio is just east of Lambeti plantation, the important defence centre of Munda, which has been under incessant Allied bombing attacks.

Reports of ground fighting, round Munda, on which American troops arc converging from three sides, are sparse, and there are no indications as to when the enlarged Lilio beach-head was established. Revised results of Sunday's Allied air attack on the Buin-Faisi anchorage bring the weekend plane losses in this area to 70 Japanese and 16 Allied machines.

“This has been like a fight under water,” wrote a war correspondent in the Buin-Faisi area. “Bullets whistle through the air or bury themselves with hardly a sound in the porridge-like earth or rotten wood. Explosions make popping noises in the falling rain.” SHARP ENCOUNTER. In New Guinea, fierce fighting occurred on the slopes of Mount Tambu, north-east of Komiatum. A series of sharp encounters terminated successfully for the Australian forces who forced the Japanese to retreat, leaving behind 82 killed. Supporting the ground operations, Boston attack planes yesterday made 43 strafing passes on enemy camps and gun emplacements in the Komiatum and Erskine Creek areas. At Salamaua, about five miles to the north, bombs from a Mitchell tore a 40ft. gap in a bridge spanning the mouth of the Francisco River. Liberators on Sunday night struck heavily at enemy positions at Celebes. For five hours our big bombers pounded Macassar. In spite of intense anti-aircraft fire, they started a chain of blazes along the waterfront. Factory areas and aerodrome installations suffered very great destruction. Liberators apparently took the enemy by surprise, for when the first of our raiding force arrived the town was lighted up. Macassar was previously heavily raided on June 23, when Liberators dropped 38 tons of bombs.

JUNGLE WARFARE NIGHT AND DAY STRAIN. TACTICS OF JAPANESE SNIPERS. SYDNEY, July 20. Reminiscent of the final savage fighting at the Buna-Gona beachhead is the scene at Munda, New Georgia, where the American forces are closing in against the Japanese airfield's defences. An Australian war correspondent gives a vivid description. “The troops besieging Munda have to bear both the nerve-sapping strain of jungle warfare and the devastating noise of the European war theatre,” he writes. “By day, there is the steaming jungle, the crackle of rifles and machine-guns, .the roar of guns and the crash of shells and bombs; by night, the lying in muddy trenches, more cannonades of shells screaming overhead, more ' bombs and infiltrating Japanese, some silent in the treetops, some screaming and shouting on the ground. “Night is the Japanese time. Some climb trees and sit motionless waiting for targets. Others roam in the bush, howling and screaming, some even crying: ‘I am stabbed. Help! Help! Look out, the Japanese are coming.’ All but the greenest and most nervy troops have learnt to recognise the Japanese accent and lie still. The slightest movement gives the waiting sniper his chance. . Sometimes when their noise tactics fail, Japanese daredevils will crawl up and leap in and out of our trenches, hoping that some panicky men will fight among themselves with knives. “Al night also the Japanese Air Force gets busy. After dark, they send in nuisance forces which cruise round for hours. Sleep, even for exhausted men, is fitful. And there is no real back area in the New Georgia front line. Perils extend a good part of the way along the lines of communication.”